The DVD boom is not just helping movie studios. Sales of music DVDs for artists such as Linkin Park, Beyoncé and Led Zeppelin have more than doubled in 2004, giving a much-needed shot in the arm to the struggling music industry.

Artists such as Shania Twain are finding "a discovered gold mine" in DVD music sales.

Music DVDs typically feature a mix of live concerts and behind-the-scenes footage and sell for $14.98 to $19.98. In a $32 billion industry struggling with music piracy and illegal downloading, music DVDs — much harder to pirate — are emerging as a bright spot.

Record labels sold 19.7 million music DVDs this year through the week ending Oct. 10, vs. 9.7 million the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

With more than 60% of music sales generated in the second half and new DVDs due from the likes of Norah Jones and Jay-Z, music DVDs could be hot holiday sellers.

American consumers shelled out $16 billion on DVD sales and rentals last year, more than for movie tickets. Music DVDs are a way for record companies to cash in on the craze, experts say. "This is a discovered gold mine," says David Card, music analyst at Jupiter Research.

To enhance the appeal, music labels are trying to go beyond concert footage to offer the same bells and whistles as movie DVDs.

"Core fans want more than the conventional 10 to 12 songs they get on a CD. They want to go backstage with the artists. They want to see how they live, where they come from," says Phil Quartararo, president of EMI Music Marketing.

The more ambitious — and expensive — DVDs go beyond the usual hour-long live concert to offer backstage footage, music videos, media interviews, even "bootleg" copies of songs.

TOP 10 MUSIC DVDs

Sales this year through Oct. 10, in thousands, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan:

Performer

Sales

Linkin, Park, Live in Texas

300

Seether, Disclaimer

249

Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, Part II

244

Dave Matthews Band, The Gorge

236

Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die

231

Rob Zombie, Past Present & Future

193

Coldplay, Coldplay Live 2003

166

Beyoncé, Live at Wembley

165

Kenny Chesney, When the Sun Goes Down

164

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin DVD

150

EMI struck gold, for example, with its The Beatles Anthology series. The first five-DVD boxed set sold for $80 and featured unreleased Beatles recordings and 10 hours of Fab Four footage culled from concerts, interviews, feature films, studio sessions and home movies. At the other end of the spectrum, Universal Music has compiled standard MTV-style song videos by artists such as Toby Keith, Moody Blues and Kiss, selling them as DVDs for $7.98 at Target.

Jim Urie, president of Universal Music & Video Distribution, reports music DVD sales are up 119% in 2004 for the world's largest music company because of hot sellers featuring Shania Twain and Guns & Roses. As more music fans opt for home theaters over sitting on a stadium floor, sales will only rise, he says. "A bunch of music videos thrown together don't sell. It's the live concerts that really sell," says Urie.

DVDs tend to work best with older bands such as Led Zeppelin that have years of archived material to draw from, he says.

Details:

•Global sales grow. While global CD sales dropped 2.7% in the first half of 2004, music DVD sales grew 27%, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The price of music DVDs has also dropped, Urie says.

•New revenue stream. By sending film crews to capture live concerts, labels are making money from an area where profit has traditionally gone to promoters. But that's creating a Wild West atmosphere where "who gets paid, and the way they get paid, is all over the place," says Urie.

•New formats. Music DVDs are just one new format being tried. Coming in November: DualDiscs with a CD on one side and a DVD on the other.